many ways representative of the disinvestment in the humanity, disinvestment of the arts in favor of science, in favor of technology but it strikes me that what you just said and the context of the book and the fact that we still have the sort of need for the untold stories for the dark secrets is indicative of a kind of historical illiteracilliterac y that exists in our country and that african-americans and that black history in africana history itself with the subject that is most unknown or he raced from our collective consciousness. do you think that historical illiteracy contributes to our present and even to our future? do you see the larger story that you tell here as essential to your vision of the country we ought to live in? >> i don't know that i have thought about it in that way. what i definitely thought about was how reflective her family was of the american story and i wanted very much to imbue it with the history so that people could see that her family had front row seats to some of the most important moments in our history slavery, civil war emancipation, the migration, ji